Groundbreaking of Agile Cold Storage Facility in St. Tammany Parish
Elected officials and economic development leaders in St. Tammany Parish will convene on Tuesday morning to break ground on the new Agile Cold Storage building. This facility, situated on a 10-acre plot near a cluster of other large distribution centers just off Interstate 59, marks a significant development for the region.
Agile Cold Storage, headquartered in Gainesville, Georgia, specializes in blast-freezing and packaging food for shipping. The Pearl River facility is anticipated to be a hub of activity, with the company projecting it will dispatch approximately 100 containers of food shipments weekly from this new location to the Port of New Orleans for export, as stated during the project’s announcement this spring.
Construction of the facility is slated for completion by March 2025, according to Agile CEO Don Schoenl.
Celebrating the Milestone
A notable gathering of business leaders and elected officials took place on Tuesday, June 4, 2024, to celebrate the groundbreaking of the Agile Cold Storage facility in Pearl River.
When the project was unveiled in March, economic development officials praised it as a key addition to their strategy of attracting more distribution and logistics companies to St. Tammany Parish. The new facility will be situated near the Associated Wholesale Grocers distribution center and the Rooms To Go Outlet.
Job Creation and Economic Impact
The facility is expected to generate 100 new jobs with an average salary of approximately $53,000, as per the St. Tammany Corporation, the parish’s economic development agency. Additionally, the state’s economic development agency predicts the creation of up to 100 indirect jobs.
CEO Don Schoenl mentioned that there is potential for the facility to expand by 50% in the future, emphasizing the site’s capacity for growth. “This building isn’t big enough,” he remarked, pointing to the plant’s rendering displayed on a large sign at the site.
Hiring for the management team is set to begin in the fall, with further recruitment to follow, according to Schoenl.
Strategic Growth and Incentives
A 2022 report from St. Tammany Corp. indicated that the parish had over 8,000 jobs in the transportation, distribution, and logistics sector, experiencing a 16% growth rate from 2017 to 2022. The agency has actively marketed the parish, especially areas along Interstates 12 and 59, as prime locations for logistics and distribution facilities. In 2021, the agency also established a working agreement with the Port of New Orleans to support these efforts.
Louisiana Economic Development has provided an incentives package, including a $1.5 million performance-based grant to reimburse Agile for site improvements, contingent upon meeting certain investment and payroll targets. Additionally, St. Tammany Parish has offered an incentive that reduces the company’s parish property taxes by about two-thirds for ten years, with the stipulation that Agile reinvest those savings into construction and other costs.
Agile Cold Storage is projected to have an annual payroll of around $5.4 million in St. Tammany, with expectations for this figure to grow to approximately $8 million in the coming years, according to St. Tammany Corp. CEO Chris Masingill.
